The newly developed Whitespruce Provincial Training Center will open soon, and Monday Yorkton Council heard a bit about what will take place at the facility.
“We’re moving into a new era with Justice in Yorkton,” said Whitespruce spokesperson Connie Lehky.
The facility west of the Yorkton near Orcadia had been a young offenders facility, but with some 150 vacancies province wide in that area, the facility has been repurposed to house adult males who will undertake training to help them transition back into the world once released.
“We’ll be opening in the next few weeks,” said Lehky, noting they have room for 39 inmates, and will have a staff of 23 full-time equivalents, and 13 part-time staff.
The facility will focus on education and employment programming. The first two areas of employment training will be food services, and carpentry, both chosen based on what were identified as areas of shortage in terms of employees.
A third thrust will be a community service program, offered Lehky.
The facility will have a crew of eight-to-10 men who community groups, the City, and others, can make requests to have help in any capacity which is normally carried out by volunteers, said Lehky.
As examples, the crew could help with mowing the grass at a rural cemetery, or remove graffiti in the city, she said.
Lehky noted a similar program operates in Saskatoon, and the crew is booked nearly a year in advance.
